Photos and Writing by Kyle Ostrander
British post-punk trio Mclusky have been a name in the scene since the mid-90’s. Their show on Thursday night at Warsaw in NYC proved the group still packs as much energy and charisma as they did when they first started 30 years ago. The band were on the road in support of their latest release, The World Is Still Here and So Are We, their first new record in 20 years.
As soon as the doors opened, fans streamed in and made a beeline for the barricade, positioning to get as close to the action as possible. Mclusky wasted no time when they took the stage, diving straight into “Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues”, cranking to maximum volume right out of the gate. Vocalist/guitarist Andrew Falkous would occasionally step back from the mic mid-song to let the crowd, who were shouting every word, happily handle vocal responsibilities. The crowd itself was a diverse group of ages, with young NYC transplants standing side-by-side with veteran rockers, all excitedly coming together to embrace Mclusky’s career-spanning 22 song set.
The venue was covered in waves of power chord riffs saturated with sweetly tinny guitar leads, pushed forward by chunky bass lines and a powerful drum presence. Bassist Damien Sayell fed off the sound, refusing to stand still and spending the entire set bouncing across the stage, flipping his hair, and launching his bass into the air throughout the night. The crowd fed off that energy in-kind, moshing nonstop and keeping a large circle pit churning the whole set. Between songs, the band’s personality was just as much of a draw as the music itself. “Hello everyone, we’re called Kings of Leon! Now we’re gonna play a track off the first Kings of Leon album, which was simply called Kings of Leon…or maybe something more profound than that. Either way, that’s who we are!” joked Falkous before delivering another cut from the band’s catalog.
Mclusky’s North American run of shows wraps up April 11 in DC. For more details on the band and upcoming dates, follow along on their Instagram page.
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